Sceptical Scot

A new UK union? Europe? Tackling poverty and climate change? Kirsty Hughes sees a ‘vital opportunity’ for imaginative co-operation between Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland – and England’s Greens. The elections in Scotland, Wales and English council elections are leading to much comment on the UK’s new multi-party system as well as the shrinking of Labour and Tories. Such div...

Voter turnout is down in Scotland’s parliamentary elections but up in England’s local elections. What does that mean? Expert political commentators assess the implications of the ‘seismic’ 2026 election in this extract from The Conversation , Let’s begin with the view from and about Scotland. Murray Leith Professor of Political Science, University of the West of Scotland In…<...

Charlie Ellis surveys the 2026 election landscape and finds, as in football, a strangely unpredictable shifting pitch

Scottish party manifestos pledge extra spending without addressing huge challenges facing the next Scottish government – likely to be SNP again despite 20 years of underachievement in power. John McLaren sets out four lessons to learn from the state we are in.

The upcoming Scottish election takes place at a time of great un...

“Since 1999 of the roughly 4 million people registered to vote, those actually voting averaged out at around 2.2million. That’s a difference of 1.8 million – meet the Absent Voters.”  George Thorley makes the case for an active, participating democracy (on behalf of  of The Mercat Group* of former Council CEOs/Parliamentary Returning Officers)* ...